Question generation—the purposeful posing and answering of questions about what is read—serves the goal of reading comprehension instruction not only of its own accord, but also in conjunction with multiple reading comprehension strategies.

The Role of Question Generation in Reciprocal Teaching

In numerous reading comprehension studies analyzed by the National Reading Panel, question generation has played a large role in reciprocal teaching. Of the four principal strategies (e.g., summarization, question generation, clarification, and prediction) used in combination during reciprocal teaching, question generation is the strategy most frequently incorporated. In addition to 27 studies supporting the effectiveness of question generation in the NRP research review, 11 of 30 studies cited in a comprehensive meta-analysis on question generation were as a part reciprocal teaching (NRP, 2000; Rosenshine and Meister, 1996).

Question generation strategies, in addition to being a natural precursor to question answering, is an excellent compliment to another proven strategy—comprehension monitoring. Often referred to as self-regulation, comprehension monitoring translates into metacognitive awareness and students' abilities to self-select and employ questioning strategies on a situational basis. Students learn to independently and actively select and use strategies that help them better comprehend text material. Notably, some of the most favorable gains in students' abilities to critique and improve the quality of their own questions and those of other students have been found to occur in conjunction with comprehension monitoring instruction. For more information on why and how to assist students in learning to critique or measure the quality of the operational questions they generate, read S3 Assessment Criteria for Operational Questions.